The Scroll Hunters
by Judanim
Summary: Pre game. Two scroll hunters team up with our Traverse Town heroes, while Maleficent enlists the help of three Final Fantasy villians...
1. Agrabah

Author's Note: Well, welcome to my first official KH fic! First things first, this story is definitely strange, but does coincide with the story of the game quite nicely, so don't expect any screwing up of canon. (This in itself is unusual for me 'cause more often than not I somehow mess with canon. Go figure). But, yeah, this one's just a little fun idea I got from this quiz I took once. Okay, the idea is nuts and I still don't know where I'm going with it, but it's fun. And I hope everyone else thinks so, too. By the way, any and all flames will be fed to my dog. He eats just about anything.

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is Riana. The plot ideas and all are original (of course), but otherwise everything else belongs to either Disney or Square. But, if I did own anything, it'd be Auron. Or at least his sword. He's got a kick-ass sword. Read on!

P.S. This fic has nothing to do with KH2, 'cause I know Auron pops up in that one. So, it will eventually become outdated once the game is released, but I don't care! HA! Okay, going now...

The Scroll Hunters  
by Judanim

Chapter One: _"Agrabah"_

Riana sighed as the last Shadow burst into a couple balls of munny. The Chaos Ring on her hand definitely hadn't helped her in that last fight. Briefly she considered selling it to synthesize something else. She had the right ingredients for a Ribbon, but she wasn't sure if her team would make it to Traverse Town in one piece.

"Pegasus, you okay?" she asked.

The white horse with wings seemed to stare at her, asking her why she would inquire of something that useless. The horse made it out fine; he always did.

"Auron?" Riana called to her other party member.

The man was grumbling as usual, but this time it wasn't about his company or the fact that he hated flying. This time it was about the Heartless they'd encountered. "Stupid little buggers. So damn hard to hit..." He walked up to the other two, his red jacket slightly askew, along with his sunglasses. "Why are we here again?"

Riana giggled. "To help control the pet population."

Pegasus raised his head, an eyebrow shot upward. Auron stared. Riana giggled again. "Yes, we're here to help control the pet population."

Auron rolled his eyes, pushing his sunglasses back up to the bridge of his nose. "Be serious for once in your life, Riana."

"Fine, fine." Riana pulled out a map from her pouch. "Okay, before we left town, Aerith said that there was a chance that there might be a scroll here. She didn't say exactly where, but she said that it probably wouldn't be inside the city."

"A scroll in this poor excuse for a sand trap?" Auron asked, looking around. "Well, I suppose anything's possible. Let's get going."

Pegasus whinnied and tossed his head. Both humans looked up, recognizing the sign for trouble. They both gasped in surprise as they saw a huge Heartless headed their way, the creature breathing fire and knocking anything in its path aside with a push of its stomach.

"Yevon be damned! That thing's bigger than a Large Body!" Auron exclaimed, falling into his fighting stance.

"Must be the resident version," Riana said, pulling out her daggers. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it quicker than Pegasus could get us out of here."

Auron sighed and shook his head, still astonished at his companion's penchant for trouble. Then again, he wasn't much better, but this was a different circumstance. "What are you going to do, launch fireballs at it?" He ducked in preparation for any orb of magic that might be coming his way. He wasn't about to let his hair get caught on fire...again.

"I'll just summon Shiva," Riana replied, grinning. She fell into her defensive stance, swirling her daggers in the motions needed to awaken the Guardian Forces that slept at her belt. "Shiva - Diamond Dust!"

A spike of ice shot up out of the ground, and out of the spike burst a blue woman-like creature, the ice queen known as Shiva. She hurled a ball of energy at the strange Heartless, which turned into a sheet of ice. With a snap of her fingers, the ice broke apart and the monster burst into little green and yellow balls.

"See? That wasn't so bad, now was it?" Riana asked, one hand on her hip and the other holding up her daggers.

Pegasus laughed as Auron shook his head and began to walk off.

* * *

Maleficent watched the party move across the desert sands of Agrabah through the sphere. She gave an evil smile before turning to the three men standing behind her. All three were tall and proud, but that was about all the similarities, besides their sinister demeanors. The youngest was a blond with a constant snarl on his face. The next was a man with tall blue hair with a twisted smile. The last was a man with long, silver hair and an equally long sword at his side. The witch grinned.

"It seems our scroll hunters are in Agrabah, looking for the very text we seek," she said, directing her gaze to each of the three. "So, once they retrieve it, one of you will dispatch them."

The man with blue hair tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm...so you'll steal from them what they rightfully earned? A truly ingenious idea, but I don't think killing them would be as good. If you kill them, then you'd have to go out and get the ancient texts yourself, for you know as well as everyone that they are the best scroll hunters these worlds have ever seen."

Maleficent glared ever so slightly at him. "It's true. They have figured out ancient puzzles that are impossible to everyone else. Perhaps you're right, Seymour. Fine then. One of you will simply go out and steal the scroll from them, then. Don't kill any of them, whatever you do. Disobey and you'll answer to me."

The silver-haired man stepped forward. "I answer to no conniving witch," he said, brandishing his huge katana. "If I go, I make no promises that someone won't end up dead."

"Then you won't go," Maleficent replied. "Sephiroth, you'll stay. Seifer, you will go. Steal the scroll but bring no harm to them. Understood?"

The blond nodded. "Got it." A portal of darkness opened, and he stepped through it.

* * *

Riana laid back on Pegasus' back, one hand shielding her eyes from the blinding sun. She glanced over to her left to see Auron walking beside the horse, trudging through the sand. "You know, things would be a lot easier if you got on. We'd be moving a lot faster. Heck, we'd be flying if you weren't so stubborn."

Auron looked up and smirked. "Just remember, stubborn or not, I'm the one with the sunglasses. Good luck seeing without me."

"You know, I hate it when you're right," Riana sighed. She sat up. "Come on, Auron, just get on the horse! Pegasus wouldn't mind, would you Pegasus?"

Pegasus was about to protest, until he felt Riana nudge his shoulder blade. Reluctantly, he whinnied and shook his head, as if to say that it wouldn't be a problem.

The older man sighed and gazed around the area. "There's nothing here but sand. There's no way that there's a scroll out here. Let's head back to the city."

"Wait," Riana said, looking forward.

The horse raised an eyebrow and followed her gaze. His eyes widened at what he saw. A shape slowly rose out of the sand, swirling and melting to form a tiger's head. Auron stopped dead in his tracks.

"What in the name of Yevon is that?" he asked, blinking a couple times.

Pegasus began to back up, but Riana held him steady. "Must be what we're looking for. Come on, guys. We're going in."

Auron stared as the pair began to fly off. He slowly backed away and began to walk back to city. A second later he felt himself being picked up and thrown. It didn't take him long to realize that Pegasus had taken the liberty to make sure the party wouldn't lose its swordsman. "Well, I tried," he muttered as the horse flew off.

The big tiger head didn't look all that inviting. In fact, it looked downright menacing. But, that didn't stop the party. They'd faced worse things...at least they thought so.

"Who dares disturb my slumber?" the tiger head asked in a loud, booming voice.

Startled, Riana slowly climbed off of Pegasus. She took a couple steps forward. "Um...we are three scroll hunters. And the rumor has it that there's an ancient scroll buried in these sands. We seek it."

Pegasus poked her in the back with his muzzle, as if to say, "Leave me out of this."

The tiger head raised a sandy eyebrow. "Whose side are you on?"

"We work for no side," Auron said. "Scroll hunters, by nature, remain neutral."

That answer seemed to be enough for the beast. "Enter, then. But only touch the scroll you seek. Anything else will bring doom."

"No problem," Riana said, giving the tiger head a salute. "Come on. Let's go get what we came here for." She walked towards the creature made of sand. Auron and Pegasus followed.

The tiger head opened its mouth wide, allowing them enough room to walk inside. They went down a long, curving flight of stairs before they reached an open hall. To the right was a set a stairs that led to what looked like a bottomless pit. To the left was a column in the shape of a strange, almost tribal-like face.

Riana stepped closer to the column to try and make out the details of the face. Oddly, there was a ramp that led out of its mouth. The ramp then led to a path that ran the entire length of the hall. "Huh. I wonder what's that for."

"Wonder what what's for?" Auron asked, straightening. He had just been peering over the side of the foyer, looking down into the bottomless pit.

"This," Riana replied, indicating to the column, ramp, and path.

Auron raised an eyebrow, examining the structure. It seemed ordinary enough, but then...

Suddenly, there was a rumbling coming from somewhere inside the column. The sound moved downwards, which could only mean one thing. "Riana! Look out!" Auron exclaimed, ready to jump if necessary.

Riana looked up, and then looked at the column. A huge boulder popped out of the mouth. She jumped back at the right second, because the boulder crushed the spot where she'd been previously standing. "Thanks," she called back.

"I think we better go down these stairs. It seems safer," Auron said.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Riana agreed.

Pegasus reluctantly followed the pair. Something about the place just didn't give him a good feeling. Maybe it was the mass amount of death traps lying around.

They walked down the stairs and saw only a floating block at the bottom. Deciding to take a gamble rather than risk life and limb with the boulders, they stepped on it. The block slowly descended into the bottomless pit. When it stopped, they found themselves in a dank, dark cave submerged in water. Straight across the water was a statue of a monkey holding a large gem. All around the room were paths leading off to other chambers.

"You'd need a shoopuf to get around this place," Auron commented. "You think you can handle this, Pegasus? Flying's not much of an option with this confined space."

Pegasus shrugged in his own way. He touched a hoof to the water, and then pulled back quickly, his teeth chattering.

Riana giggled. "Oh, come on, I'm sure it's not that bad. Besides, I can just summon Quezacotl and he'll fly us across any gaps."

Auron chuckled. "Genius idea, Riana, summon a Thunder elemental bird in a big cave filled with water. That'll get us far."

Even the horse had to laugh on that one.

"I still hate it when you're right," Riana sighed. She thought for a moment. Then, it occurred to her. "Why don't I summon Leviathan, and we can ride on his back through the water! Hopefully there's no Heartless or anything down this way."

"Sounds like a plan," Auron replied, shrugging. "Go for it."

Riana swirled her daggers around in the air. "Leviathan!"

A purple vortex opened in the middle of the chamber. Out of it poured a stream of water, which turned into a large blue snake. This was Leviathan, menace of the deep.

The three got onto its back. There were several exits out of the cave, so they picked the nearest. To the side of the entrance they had come in was the one they swam through. In the next cave there was another monkey statue and rapids that led to the next room. Leviathan swam upstream into it. Out of the next chamber there had to have been four exits. As they were swimming towards one across the way, Riana spotted one off to the side and out of the way. She guided Leviathan over to it and dismounted.

"Looks like a secret chamber of some sort," she said.

Auron slowly got off the snake, a little disdained to find his boots soaked. But it didn't actually matter. The desert sun would dry them once they got out of there. "It is off the beaten path. Question is, can one of us make the jump?"

"Hmm...probably not. Pegasus can, though," Riana replied. She petted Pegasus' mane. "You mind going in and seeing if there's a scroll in there?"

Pegasus looked uncertain. Horses didn't see well in the dark, or at least he didn't.

"If it helps, I'll send Ifrit in with you." Riana turned to Leviathan. "Sorry. Only one GF at a time." The snake disappeared. "Ifrit!"

A swirl of flames rose into the center of the room, and then faded to reveal the hell demon Ifrit. He was about to roar when Riana held up a hand. "Whoa," she said. "Don't do that."

Ifrit seemed confused, but he went with it. Following a few of Riana's very simple instructions, he went with Pegasus into the hidden room in the upper level. On the platform, which was high above another room filled with water, were two pots. Pegasus remembered the tiger head's warning, so he was careful about choosing one. He closed his eyes and randomly pointed to one.

The Guardian Force busted the pot open with his massive clawed hands. A scroll clanged to the stone floor. Pegasus did a small victory dance, grabbed the scroll, and fluttered down to where the humans waited. Ifrit disappeared the moment he descended. Proudly, he plopped the scroll into Riana's hand. 

"Excellent!" she exclaimed. She handed the scroll to Auron. "Let's head back to town and see what Cid will give us for this baby."

Auron examined the scroll. "Looks valuable. But couldn't we find a fairer seller?"

Riana shook her head. "He'd be fairer if someone hadn't walked into the Accessory Shop swinging his blade around."

The swordsman sent a glare at his companion before pocketing the text. "Just get us out of here before this place decides to cave in."

"All right." Riana giggled a little before summoning Leviathan again.

* * *

The desert sun beat down on the three as they flew on Pegasus' back. They were trying to get back to the city as quickly as they could, before they got caught in a sandstorm or something. Suddenly a flash of gray and blonde sent Pegasus to the ground, Auron in one direction, and Riana in another.

Riana rolled to her feet, twirling out her daggers. She scanned the area, looking for the perpetrator. A glint of red and orange coming her way caught her eye, and she did the first thing that came to mind. It was almost a reflex action. "Ifrit!"

Ifrit quickly appeared, and the Fire spell hit him instead. He absorbed it with a strange grin, and then went in the direction of the fireball. Riana wasn't too far behind him. A bunch of Fire spells kept coming at them, but Ifrit just absorbed them and picked up speed. Whoever it was, they weren't aware that Fire spells healed a Fire elemental summon.

After a few moments of running, the spells ceased. Riana peeked out from behind Ifrit and saw a tall man with blonde hair, a long gray coat, and a scar going across his face. She raised an eyebrow, wondering whom this was and what Auron had done to piss him off.

"Uh, who are you?" she called out to the stranger, half-hiding behind Ifrit.

"Who I am doesn't matter really," he said, shouldering his strange blade. "What does matter is what I'm after. The scroll, if you don't mind. Hand it over and no one gets hurt."

Riana shook her head. "If you think I'm giving you that scroll, you're nuts. And if you're talking about spilling my blood, I just don't see that happening."

The man snarled. "Then let me open your eyes!" He began summoning a different spell, knowing that if he was quick enough, he could do some serious damage.

The female scroll hunter was one step ahead of him. Ifrit returned to his spot on Riana's belt, and another Guardian Force came forth. "Eden - Eternal Breath!"

One of the most powerful summon spells known to man or beast appeared, hitting the strange man hard with a beam of white light. He was knocked back, breathing hard but still alive. Riana muttered a curse, and stood at the ready to call up another Guardian Force.

"Cura," he said weakly. The mid-level White Magic spell did little to heal the massive damage Eden had dealt him, but it was enough to allow him to stand. He was bent over and ready to fall back down again, but at least he was on two feet. After a few breaths, he cast another spell, this time it was offensive. More tactical of a move it was, but still on the offensive. "Silence."

Riana felt damned as the status spell hit her, and took effect. She had no accessories in her inventory that could've protected against that. With the status ailment in place, she couldn't summon a Guardian Force, or cast a spell to get rid of it. She rifled around quickly in her pack, searching for an echo screen or remedy. Then she remembered that Auron had them all. Crap. This meant that she would have to rely on physical attacks, and that definitely wasn't her strong suit. Plus, the guy had a huge blade-type thing, and all she had were daggers. _Note to self: If we make it back to Traverse Town, synthesize a Ribbon no matter what_, she thought.

"Not so proud now, are you?" the man laughed. His snarl deepened. "The scroll."

Reluctantly, Riana fell into a fighting stance. "Over my dead body."

The man shook his head, his snarl turning into a grin. It looks like he'd have to disobey Maleficent's orders after all. "Have it your way, then."

The fight finished before it even started. There was a flash of red and black, and the man was on the ground, unconscious. Auron stood behind the body, his confident grin hidden behind the cowl of his jacket. He shouldered his blade and threw an echo screen at Riana. "I take it he was after the scroll."

It took Riana a moment to come around. The item healing her was the first thing to partly alleviate her daze, followed by Auron's voice. After a second she realized that Auron had smacked the strange man on the back of his head with the broad side of his blade. "Yeah, he was. Funny thing that was, though, 'cause you had the scroll the entire time."

Auron chuckled. "And something tells me he was nowhere near calling your bluff. So, he pulled out the cheap shot, eh? You'll have to get a Ribbon in town." He looked around. "Where's Pegasus?"

The white horse appeared from behind a sand dune. He had been hiding the entire time.

Riana had to grin. "Let's get back to town. I'm dying for a nice club sandwich from the café. That, and a glass of water."

Auron nodded as they mounted Pegasus. "I'll second that motion."


	2. Ramifications

Author's Note: This chapter is shorter than I expected, but it does get the story moving and adds a couple threads to the plot. If I'm lucky.

Disclaimer: See _Chapter One_, 'cause I hate repeating myself.

The Scroll Hunters  
by Judanim

Chapter Two: _"Ramifications"_

Riana thanked whatever gods existed in the universe (Yevon in particular) as she stepped onto the cobblestone street of the First District of Traverse Town. Pegasus and Auron weren't too far behind her, and both seemed just as grateful to be back on solid ground and in a normal climate. There was a moogle pacing back and forth across the courtyard. It noticed the three and waved, then went back to its mindless pacing. Riana smiled. Yep, it was definitely good to be back in a world where predictability reigned.

"Guys! You're back!" a female voice called from the café on the left.

Riana looked up and noticed the speaker. It was Yuffie Kisaragi, a female ninja whom she had managed to make pretty good friends with. "Hey! Anything important happen while we were gone? You know, besides Leon getting broodier."

Yuffie giggled. "Not really. Cid's a little grumpier, but that's no surprise." She walked closer to the group. "I take it you were successful in finding a scroll?"

"Yep. I hope Cid's newfound grumpiness won't prevent him from giving us a good price for it," Riana replied. "We went through a lot of trouble to get it."

"Well, if there's anything that's going to prevent Cid from giving you a fair price on a scroll, it's not going to be his grumpiness," Yuffie laughed.

"More like someone else's…" Riana glanced at Auron and laughed.

"Very true." Yuffie threw an arm around her friend's shoulders. "Come on, I'll buy you a sandwich at the café while you tell me all about this little adventure of yours." She looked over to Auron. "Cid's in the shop now, Auron. You can go and negotiate if you'd like."

Auron muttered his thanks and headed towards the Accessory Shop while Yuffie and Riana went over to the café. The shop was empty when he opened the door, so he walked right up to the counter and put down the scroll.

Cid Highwind looked up with surprise. His alarm turned into a glare when he saw the caller. "Well, you found another one, eh? Can't say I'm surprised. Where'd you find this old piece of junk?"

"In a sand trap called Agrabah," Auron replied, cordially returning the glare. "And I don't think it's a piece of junk. Look at the writing. It's some sort of spell or curse. That has to be worth something."

The merchant and gummi expert opened up the scroll and stared at the writing on the fragile page. "Must be some kind of scroll hunter trick that you're trying to pull on me or something, 'cause I don't see anything but scribbles and chicken scratches. Four hundred, and that's my final offer."

"What?" Auron exclaimed. "There are useless accessories that are worth more than that! You're insane! It's at least a thousand, if not more."

"Four hundred, or it's free."

Auron groaned and stared at Cid. He stared right back. And thus the typical negotiation over the worth of a scroll began inside the Accessory Shop, as it had many times before.

* * *

Squall Leonhart, more commonly known as Leon, jumped over the stack of crates that blocked the shortcut from the Alleyway to the First District. He had just been training in the Secret Waterway, and he didn't really feel like taking the long way round to get to the café.

The Accessory Shop wasn't too far away, and Leon could hear shouts coming from inside. Frightened moogles were scampering out of the Item Workshop, while most everyone else seemed oblivious. "So, Auron and Riana are back. Great." He walked up to the shop and went inside, grinning a bit as he saw Cid and Auron in a heated argument.

Neither of the two men seemed to notice Leon's entrance. They continued arguing. Leon picked up the scroll from the counter and began reading it. He raised an eyebrow as some of the legible text made a good deal of sense. "Um, Cid, you might want to reconsider debating this one. If we lose it…" He didn't have to finish the sentence.

Cid sighed. He hated giving in, especially to scroll hunters. "Fine. What do you think it's worth, then?" He glanced at Auron.

"What's the man's asking price?"

Auron looked up, a smirk forming on his usually calm features. "One thousand."

Leon held up a finger, as if to say "one moment," while reading through more of the scroll. He held his palm towards the ceiling and indicated upwards.

"Two?" Cid yelled.

Another moment passed and Leon's hand went up again.

"Three?"

The hand went up again.

Auron's smirk turned into a confident grin. Finally, something was going right today.

"Four?" Cid looked desperate. "Please tell me it's not five!"

A couple longer moments went by. Suddenly, Leon's eyes widened, and his hand flashed twice, palm facing towards Cid.

The gummi ship expert was appalled. "Ten? Leon, are you out of your mind?"

Leon quickly rolled up the scroll and nodded. "I'd pay it myself, except I don't have that kind of munny." He looked at Auron. "Thanks for getting this. If Cid decides to stiff you, you have all of Traverse Town's permission to kill him."

Auron's grin widened a bit more. "Excellent." He looked expectantly at Cid.

Cid was at a loss for words. He had just gone from losing four hundred to ten thousand munny in less than ten minutes. Silently he pulled out the munny and handed it to Auron, who promptly pocketed it with a smug grin and walked out of the shop.

"I can't believe that just happened," Cid muttered, shaking his head and staring at the counter. This was definitely not his day.

_I cannot believe that just happened!_ Auron walked down the steps in front of the shop, a triumphant grin spread across his face. This was definitely his day. Of course, there was the exception of the incident in the desert, but that could be forgiven for the price of ten thousand munny. He looked over the café and saw Riana having a sandwich with Yuffie. He decided to let her be for now. They all probably needed a break. So, he headed over to the Third District. If he were lucky, he'd run into a couple of Heartless. Actually, that was a certainty.

* * *

Riana laughed as Yuffie recalled a day of training in the Secret Waterway. She took another gulp of water, relishing the cold liquid as if she wouldn't have another drink of water for the next thousand years. Fighting magic-to-sword combat in the middle of a strange desert would do that to a person.

"So, what was the trip to Agrabah like?" Yuffie asked. "Any cute guys?"

"Just one, I'm afraid," Riana replied. "It was this guy we fought in the middle of the desert. He was cute, but seriously arrogant. I wanted to smack that sneer right off his face."

Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "Did you catch his name?"

"No. There wasn't any time to." Riana stared at her friend. "Why?"

"Well, what did he look like?" Yuffie asked, completely ignoring Riana's question.

The scroll hunter was mystified. What did any of this matter? "He was tall, blonde, and had a scar across his face." She thought for a second. "It was kind of like Squall's. In fact…he also carried a gunblade. It didn't occur to me then, but yeah, he had a gunblade. Nice little coincidence, huh?"

The ninja's eyes went wide. "That's no coincidence. On Hollow Bastion, there was only one other person with a scar and a gunblade: Seifer Almasy."

It was at this particular point in the conversation that Leon decided to walk up to the two. He sat down in an empty chair between them and glanced at Yuffie. "What about Seifer? What does have to do with anything?" He didn't appear happy to use the name.

"Apparently, we fought him in the desert," Riana replied. "He was after the scroll." She pointed to the object in Leon's hand. "He probably would've killed me if Auron hadn't come along. Why? Who is he?"

Leon grimaced. "Seifer is an old 'friend' of ours from Hollow Bastion. Actually, he was my rival and we hated each other. What he's up to now, I can't tell you."

Yuffie smirked. "He could be a scroll hunter, like Riana and Auron."

"No, I don't think Seifer would stand for that. If I wouldn't, then he certainly would want nothing to do with it," Leon replied grimly. "Judging by the contents of the scroll he wanted," he held up said item, "I'm guessing he's working for someone."

Riana rolled her eyes. "Great. Something tells me that if he wanted that scroll so bad, then whomever he's working for will want others like it. This is seriously counterproductive. Here we are trying to stop the Heartless from spreading, and there's something working against us, and it just so happens to be one of your old buddies. Beautiful."

"I thought you said you weren't on anyone's side?" Leon rested his chin on his fist, watching the scroll hunter thoughtfully.

"Well, since you seem to be more than happy to pay us for going out and helping you basically stop the spread of the Heartless, then I guess I'm on a side," Riana answered. "I just hope Auron does, too."

At this, Leon grinned. "I'm sure he will, considering he just got ten thousand munny for this little piece of work."

"What?" Yuffie screamed. "Ten thousand? I bet Cid was pissed!"

"Oh, you bet he was. But, I didn't want Auron to walk away or anything. Besides, it's probably worth it. This thing holds one of the secrets to the final Keyhole." Leon looked at Riana. "You don't seem surprised."

Riana was staring at the table, deep in thought. "I read part of the scroll on the gummi ship. It got me thinking…What if we're not in time to stop whoever it is that's trying to allow the Heartless to take over all the worlds? We have one of the secrets to the final Keyhole, yes, but will that be enough to stop them?"

"For now, it will be," Leon answered. "But that Keyblade better show up soon. Otherwise, we're toast."

"I heard that," Yuffie and Riana said in unison.

* * *

"You insolent fool!" Maleficent exclaimed. She hit Seifer with Dark Meteor, watching with some satisfaction as he went rolling to the floor. "How could you let them get away with the scroll?"

"The man blindsided me," Seifer gasped. Two strong spells had hit him in the same day, with very little healing in between. Not exactly his best record. "He snuck up on me. There was no way that I could've defended against his attack if I couldn't see him."

"I imagine you couldn't see him because you were too busy staring at the girl!" Maleficent was tempted to hit him with another Dark Meteor, but refrained. The pain was worse when it was a fresh sting. "You should've at least been able to get the scroll away from her. She was easy enough to eliminate!"

Seymour watched the scene with a sick grin. One couldn't call his type of evil being a result of a sordid past. He really was sadistic through and through.

Seifer, however, was not happy about it. "There was nothing I could do! She had powerful Guardian Forces at her beck and call! I can't fight that! Only someone with Eidolons, aeons, or summons just as strong could negate the attack." These last words were intentional. He saw the blue-haired man's expression, and it made him want to punch the guy. Of course, he was in no position to do that at the moment. So, he did the next best thing: cornered him.

The witch at first was angry, but the emotion lessened. Instead, a grin as sick as Seymour's formed on her face. "Fine. We will fight mage with mage."

* * *

Aerith Gainsborough walked up to the café. She had just come from the makeshift "Heartless Fighters" (which consisted of her, Yuffie, and Leon at the moment; Cid was more of their technical support guy than one of the actual fighters, but he could kick butt if he wanted to) headquarters at the Small House in the Third District, so she had business on her mind. She was glad to see Riana already sitting with Leon and Yuffie at a table.

"Hey," she said, pulling up a chair from another table.

The other three responded with their own greetings, Leon's being hardly an acknowledgement. Aerith didn't take it personally. She directed her attention to the scroll hunter. "So, did you manage to find anything in Agrabah?"

Riana indicated to the scroll sitting near Leon. "Yep. Thanks to a combined effort of Pegasus and Ifrit, anyway. You were right about the scroll not being inside the city. Instead, it was inside some sort of cave guarded by a big tiger head and at the bottom of a bottomless pit."

"Well at least you found it," Aerith said. "Anything else?"

Leon cleared his throat. "Seifer's working against us."

Aerith pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Great. That tells us who our true friends are." She leaned back in her seat. "Well, you might meet him again. There's another scroll to be found, this time in a place called Halloween Town."

"It's not another sand trap, is it?" Riana asked with a smirk. "'Cause I don't want to go through that mess again."

The quiet mage shook her head. "Agrabah will seem like paradise compared to this place. It's darker than even here; that's probably due to a lack of a warm, inviting atmosphere."

Yuffie looked thoughtful. "I don't know. Have you ever opened that door with the flame on it in the Third District? That place is pretty creepy."

"I thought it was kind of funny looking actually," Leon replied.

The ninja sent a glare Leon's way. He only laughed.

Riana shook her head and looked back at Aerith. "Well, I guess to Halloween Town it is. And if we do meet Seifer again, I hope you guys won't mind me not hesitating in calling both Bahamut and Eden on him."

"Go ahead," all three answered.


End file.
